This invention relates to a furniture hinge for the pivotable connection of a door leaf to the carcase of a cabinet, cupboard or wardrobe with a carcase-related hinge member and a door-related hinge member, which is coupled over a joint mechanism with the carcase-related hinge member top. The door-related hinge member is constructed as a hinge pot that can be inserted countersunk in a recess on the inside of the door leaf. Specifically, the invention is composed of the actual pot part, lying within the recess, and a fastening flange, which can be placed upon the region of the inside of the door leaf, adjoining the door leaf recess. The fastening flange can be fastened to the back of the door leaf by fastening means engaging the material of the door leaf at the specified fastening site on the door leaf. The pot part, engaging the recess, is dimensioned smaller than the recess in the door leaf in such a manner, that, in the unfastened state, it can be shifted in the recess by a specified amount at least at right angles to the border edge of the door leaf.
Modern furniture hinges permit the alignment of the closed door leaf to be adjusted relative to the associated carcase of the cabinet, cupboard or wardrobe in at least two and frequently also in three coordinate directions, namely in a horizontal direction parallel to the side wall (depth adjustment), a horizontal direction at right angles to the side wall (adjustment of the extent of impact or overlap) and in the vertical direction (height adjustment). The adjustment possibilities are usually realized structurally in the part of the hinge secured to the carcase, that is, between the carcase related hinge member, which is frequently constructed as an extended supporting arm, and an installation plate, previously mounted at the carcase side wall, which represents the supporting wall. In special cases, it is difficult or even impossible to realize all the desired adjustment possibilities by means of the hinge mounted on the carcase.
For adjusting the extent of the overlapping of the opening door leaf in relation to the front surfaces to the carcase supporting wall, the possibility of adjusting the door leaf stop, constructed as a hinge pot, in the associated recess in the door leaf is realized owing to the fact (U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,841) that the pot part of the hinge pot, which is to be disposed within the recess in the door leaf, is dimensioned so much smaller than the recess, that, when the hinge pot is not yet fastened to the door leaf, the pot part of the hinge pot can be shifted at least in the adjusting direction by the desired, maximum adjusting amount. The space, necessarily existing between the wall of the recess of the door leaf and the pot part is covered by the fastening and covering flange, which is mounted in one piece at the upper edge of the pot part, protrudes radially and is seated on the inside of the door leaf. The hinge pot is fixed at a desired distance from the adjacent border edge of the associated door leaf by means of two fastening screws having threaded shafts. The threaded shafts are screwed through elongated holes in the door leaf, provided on opposite sides in the fastening flange and extending in the adjusting direction. The screws are tightened in order to fix the stop of the door leaf in the desired adjusted position, When the fastening screws are loosened, a change in the position of the hinge pot relative to the door leaf is then possible by shifting the pot part within the recess and subsequently tightening the fastening screws once again. In other words, the adjustment of the door leaf in the horizontal direction requires that two fastening screws at each of the hinges holding the door leaf be loosened and, after the shifting has been accomplished, be tightened. When adjustments are made frequently, it is not impossible that the thread, formed by the shafts of the fastening screws in the door leaf, is stripped and then, in the course of time, sufficiently tight fastening is no longer possible. For the known,hinge, it is therefore proposed that the fastening screws be not screwed directly into the material of the door leaf but be screwed into plastic fastening lugs, which can be expanded by the screws screwed-in in the form of straddling dowels and so can be fixed in the assigned boreholes in the door leaf. Due to the need to loosen two fastening screws for each adjusting process and, after the adjustment has been made, to tighten them once again, the adjusting process is relatively labor intensive.